Iceland international business director Paul Foley is to leave the company, it has announced.
The former Aldi UK MD initially joined as a consultant in April 2012 and took up his full role in January 2013, taking places on the board at both Iceland and its export business Iceland International (ITEX). However, Iceland insisted today that Foley never became an employee and only ever served as a consultant.
It said that Foley had now resigned from his two directorships within the business after “fulfilling his main objectives”, but said that he could maintain a “limited” role as a consultant in the future.
“We are hugely grateful to Paul for the great work he has done over the last two years in helping to establish a sound base for our future growth overseas through the establishment of our own retail business in the Czech Republic, the acquisition of the franchised Iceland stores in Ireland and the development of our export business, particularly into South Africa and the Middle East,” said Tarsem Dhaliwal, chief financial officer at Iceland.
“Our focus in the near term will be on further developing our existing businesses in these four regions, and we have therefore agreed with Paul that there are limited opportunities for a consultant of his seniority to add more value. He has, accordingly, decided to seek new opportunities and we wish him all the very best for the future.”
ITEX exports Iceland-branded products to more than 30 countries and started to ship products to the Middle East and South Africa late last year.
In November, Iceland acquired seven of its Irish stores, which were previously operated by its franchisee AIM Group, for an undisclosed fee, with chairman Malcolm Walker stating that there were “great opportunities for growth in Ireland”.
Iceland said it had no plans to replace Foley as it “already has strong management in place” within its four key international expansion areas of Czech Republic, Ireland, South Africa and the Middle East.
No comments yet